The Break-room
by PubProse
Summary: The last day for a few in the SCP-Foundation's break-room


The silence of the break room was broken by a sudden and rapid "glug" from the water cooler bubbling. The three of us jumped in terror and sat in stunned stoicism in the dim darkness of the room.

Kelly let out a sigh, "How long until they contain them?"

Roger I think his name was, and I kept quiet. Truth be told we didn't know. Nearly half an hour ago the containment breach alarm went off on the site wide loud speaker and we barricaded ourselves into the break room during our lunch awaiting security and containment staff to give an all-clear. Occasionally we heard something outside and readied ourselves for rescue, only for the noise to stop suddenly or move on.

"Should one of us leave and look for help?" Roger asked.

"Are you volunteering?" I asked with a little venom in my voice.

"Maybe we could draw straws? There are some in the cabinet I think," Kelly added standing up and searching through our supplies.

I sat and glared at the secured door, "the Foundation rules say we should sit and wait."

"We could die if we wait," Roger added standing too.

"We will die faster if we leave," I replied.

"What if security can't contain them?" Kelly asked concerned.

"Then I guess the army will be called," I quipped.

"And if they can't stop them?" Roger replied.

"Then us leaving here won't help anything," I tried to seem unafraid of the things outside. That was hard. The heavy, armored doors and what was behind them were kept a secret to almost everyone but the teams of researchers assigned to their specific artifact, whether it be creature or oddity. I had no idea what Roger and Kelly worked on but I knew that if what I was assigned to made its way out, we were in trouble and I mean that as "we" in a species sense. My hidden dread at the situation stemmed from the fact that from what I heard from people in the lunchroom, anything from a world ending clock to a coffee machine that brewed especially potent coffee and everything in between was kept in the Foundation. What broke out of its containment could be anything, but I doubted it was a coffee machine.

We sat in silence again, most attempts at talking were cut off before they turned into wild speculations and dangerous schemes. A staccato of heavy stomping could be heard every now and then but none of us cared to investigate if it was security or something else. The footfalls were added to by an odd scraping sound, like stone on stone and sometimes added to by crackling and popping noises. None of us seemed to know what it was and without leaving our hiding spot we held onto the idea it was containment personnel and decided to wait until they swept this area to make ourselves known.

A rapid and panicked set footsteps could be heard outside. The pace of the runner was erratic and they seemed to be avoiding something as the etching like stone sounds danced around the distressed runner.

Stressed pleas could be heard from beyond the barricade, "Help! Help!" The person called, as Roger stood up again.

"What are you doing?" I asked raising to my feet to confront him.

"We have to help!" Roger replied walking forward to remove the barrier.

In anger I grasped his arm and glared into his eyes, "policy is to stay put!"

Roger wrenched his arm free, "you're going to let them die?" The cries from outside grew louder as they languished, out of breath and clearly afraid.

"You don't know what that is," without Roger knowing what I knew about some of these contained specimens I could see why he was so eager to open the door to seemingly safe cries for help. The calls from outside only grew louder until finally we could hear someone trying to push open the door. They pounded their fists on the frame of the door and frantically tried to open the door knob.

Roger raced toward the door. Before anyone could stop him the door was slammed with a heavy force the forsaken soul outside couldn't possibly have summoned. The heavy slam shook the barricade and Roger staggered back as we all stared at the door. The screams reached a height and with a familiar crackling sound faded instantly. In the following stunned silence we could only hear the scraping noise from before, only it was bearing down on us from right outside the door.

The door was slammed again with the same inhuman strength. Instantly I yelped in panic and the pounding struck again and again. Roger grabbed a chair in a cheap attempt at defense and finally the door fell, barricade and all. A still silhouette stood in the doorway, the faint glow from the break-room clock kept the statue partially illuminated. It seemed like a stony fetus, its head heavy and limbs stunted. I closed my eyes in fear and fell back into the darkness. I heard the metal chair hit off the stone of its body and a breaking noise like the popping from before. Kelly cried out and I could hear her pushing through the chairs, trying to escape. I opened my eyes in time to see the statue was turned toward Kelly but frozen in place, facing her down as she crawled and scrambled to try and get around it.

I blinked and in an instant I saw it upon her, her neck snapped instantly. Standing, I tried to sprint past it now that it was turned to make my escape. I lost sight of it when it was several feet behind and barely a moment later I felt cold stone appendages around my neck. The rocky hold wrapped itself under my chin and my breath was trapped behind a broken trachea. I tried to gasp for breath but only a barely audible gurgle could escape my gaping mouth as the last thing I felt was my neck cracking with the familiar popping from before.


End file.
